“I once was lost but now am found…”

First, a non-sequitor: Did you know that you can sing Amazing Grace to the tune of the Gilligan’s Island theme song? Try it. (“Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip” is replaced by “Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.”)

What does this have to do with fitness? Absolutely nothing. It’s just one of those strange factoids you can add to the collection up there in your brain.

You’re welcome.

So what is this post actually about? It’s about a new way of thinking about weight “loss”. When you lose something, what’s the first thing you do? (I mean after the panic attack if it’s your wallet or your child.) You try to find it right? Then why do we try to lose weight? We certainly aren’t trying to get it back again. Plus, ‘losing’ is such a negative word. It implies both failure and deprivation, two words already too often caught up in our weight loss journeys.

I’d like to suggest changing the vernacular. Perhaps instead of losing weight we should be freeing weight. We are shaking off our burden and letting it go into the ether, never to darken our doorstep again.